Insect ID: Some Flying Insect Possibilities - Home and Garden IPM from Cooperative Extension - University of Maine Cooperative Extension

Insect ID: Some Flying Insect Possibilities For butterflies and moths, visit our page of photos dedicated only to butterflies and moths: Butterflies and Moths

: Bald-faced Hornets

: Blow Fly

: A type of blow fly commonly called a Green Bottle Fly.

: Carpenter Ant (Winged Queen)

: Carpenter Ant (Winged Queen)

: male Carpenter Ants (males have wings for the purpose of nuptial flights with winged queens)

: Cicadas (comparing Periodical cicadas with an Annual cicada)

: An Annual / Dog-day Cicada found in Maine

: Click Beetle (dorsal view)

: Click Beetle (wireworm adult)

: Eyed Elater
(a species of Click Beetle)

: Cluster Fly

: Example of a Crane Fly (this one is a “Large Crane Fly” in the Tipulidae family)

: Phantom Crane Fly (Family Ptychopteridae)

: Damselfly

: Dobsonflies (their larvae are aquatic)

: Female dobsonfly

: Drain Fly (also called a Moth Fly)

: Dragonflies (the nymphs are aquatic)

: Autumn Meadowhawk (dragonfly)

: Eastern Cicada-killer Wasp (Sphecius speciosus) (~1.5″ long; solitary and non-aggressive) (they provision their underground rearing chambers with paralyzed cicadas as food for their offspring) (Raymond Cape, ME; 7/11/2022) (Photo courtesy of Paul Tracy)

: Eastern Cicada-killer Wasp (Sphecius speciosus) (Photo courtesy of Scott Saunders) (8/29/2021; Hollis, Maine)

: European Chafer (adult stage)

: Fishfly adult (July 16th, 2016; central Maine)

: Fishfly adult (their larvae are aquatic)

: Flesh Fly

: Dark-winged Fungus Gnats (Family Sciaridae) captured on a yellow sticky card placed in the pot of a houseplant (they are drawn to light and also to the color of yellow)

: Example of a moth in the Geometridae (inchworms) family of moths.

: Giant Water Bug (“Toe-biter”)

: Giant Water Bug (“Toe-biter”)

: Northern Paper Wasp (Polistes fuscatus) (known also by three other common names: Dark Paper Wasp, Golden Paper Wasp and the Common Paper Wasp)

: Species of Horntail (also called Wood Wasps) (this one is the Pigeon Horntail, Tremex columba)

: Lacewings

: Mayflies (the immatures are aquatic)

: Mayfly

: Mayfly

: Metallic Wood-boring Beetle (Family: Buprestidae)

: Northeastern Pine Sawyer

: Rose Chafers (beetles)

: Scorpionfly

: Example of a solitary ground-nesting bee (Port Clyde, ME; 7/11/2009)

: Stable Fly

: Stink Bug

: Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (adult)

: Stink Bug

: Male (left) and Female (right) Spotted Wing Drosophila, photo by Griffin Dill. Actual size: 2-3 mm.

: Stonefly (adult)

: Stonefly (adult) (the immatures/nymphs are aquatic)

: Stonefly (adult)

: Transverse-banded Flower Fly (Eristalis transversa) (another example of a species that mimics bee/yellowjacket patterning)

: Virginia Giant Hover Fly / Yellowjacket Hover Fly (Milesia virginiensis) (a good yellowjacket mimic; feeding on Queen Anne’s Lace pollen)

: Tufted Globetail (Sphaerophoria contigua) (Photo courtesy of Dana Wilde from Unity, ME) (mid July, 2013)

: Common Drone Fly (Eristalis tenax) (Drone fly is sometimes written as one word: Dronefly)

: Tachinid Fly – Photo courtesy of Ashley Anderson (Dayton, ME) (July 2013)

: Tachinid Fly

: Tarnished Plant Bug

: Six-spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela sexguttata)

: Six-spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela sexguttata) feeding on a mosquito

: Catskill Potter Wasp (Ancistrocerus catskill) (Troy, ME; 6/17/2008) (This wasp is a solitary species of Vespid wasp in the group known as Potter and Mason wasps.)

: Whiteflies

: Whitespotted Sawyer Beetles

: Whitespotted Sawyer Beetle (female); Photo by C. Armstrong

: Western Conifer Seed Bug

: Yellowjackets

Information and Additional Photos: Note: Commonly known insects such as house flies, honey bees and bumblebees, Japanese beetles, mosquitoes, monarch butterflies, ladybugs, etc. are not included here